Changing the Roots
by mysterious encounter
Summary: What would happen if Tamahome wasn't the first warrior that Miaka stumbled upon when she first entered the book? Would everything, encluding her love life, have turned out better or worse? (TasMi)


**Disclaimer**: No, Fushigi Yûgi isn't mine. It belongs to Yu Watase, Shogakukan Comics, Pierrot Studios, TV Tokyo and Pioneer. No copyright infringement is intended.

Before I begin, I want to know if anyone knows of a better title for this story after you've read this chapter! My sister came up with this title and I'm not too fond of it but I'm not creative when it comes to titles of chapters and stories. So if you come up with a better title, please contact me! . I will obviously credit you for your help because it is wrong to take someone elses ideas and claim them as your own.

Alright, new fic. In third person.  
  
**I am really really hoping that no one has thought up of this plot before.** This is set right as Miaka first enters the book. And instead of meeting Tamahome, well, she meets my favorite (and I'm sure a favorite to many of you out there) bandit. Things in the beginning will seem strangely familiar cause, well the whole in and out of the book thing is going to be similar. I hope I'm making sense and I'm hoping that all of you will enjoy the first installment. Please read and review. I'd love to hear from you!   
  
Well, here it goes! Hope you all like it! :D  
  
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A warm, red light filled the dingy library room, engulfing the book cases which contained rare books, along with the two young girls in the room. The teens clung to each other as the heated glow wrapped itself around their slender bodies, enticing goose-bumps to form themselves on the upper most layer of their pale, smooth skin. As the room shook and the ruby light grew brighter, books were knocked from their homes on various bookshelves, raining around the two who were now fading from view. When both girls completely vanished, the book that they had been sitting in front of snapped closed and the red light immediately disappeared. Everything become deathly quiet as the violent shaking stopped. No one in the library realized the missing girls and no one would notice the disturbance inside the restricted room of the library.  
  
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Stars adorned the sky in a magnificent fashion. They seemed to wink down at whoever cared to watch while they shimmered in the cool breeze that blew through the mountains that night. Mount Reikaku stood tall in front of the deep navy backdrop. It was home to a group of bandits who took great pride in what they did. The leader treated them well and with respect, ruling over them with an iron harisen. With few chants the leader could bring the iron instrument to life, causing it to spew fire from its tip and turn whatever it was aimed at to ash. No one in their right mind wanted to be in it's path.  
  
The bandit leader stared up at the sky out the window of his private quarters, away from the bustle of the main building. Only him and his best friend knew about this place, and he intended on keeping it that way.  
  
Being alone was essential at the moment, seeing as he was dealing with a great loss. The bandits' former leader had just passed on and dealing with trial would be hard. He had been inducted as the new leader only days ago and was still mourning over the late leader's death. The late leader had been a father figure, taking him into his group after running away from home. The older man had refused at first, but when he saw the young boy arrive at the stronghold after being stripped of his belongings, he reconsidered and gave him the name Genrou. Closing his eyes, Genrou continued to think about what there was to do to get the stronghold in order. He knew that he was able to do the job, other wise the late leader never would have trusted him with it.  
  
As he became more and more engulfed in his thoughts, a loud snap of what sounded like thunder resonating from behind him, throwing him from his thoughts. A girl flashed into view as he whipped around to see what had cause the noise. Eyes opening wide and mouth hanging open, Genrou reached behind him instinctively for his iron weapon, which he then aimed at the women.  
  
As the girl opened her eyes, she were shocked at her surroundings. It took her a moment to realize the strong male in front of her who was aiming what looked like a fan at her.  
  
"Who th' hell are ya and what in th' hell are you doin' here?!" Genrou spat at them as he growled, baring his unique fangs. He would never fire any attacks on women, but she didn't need to know that.  
  
The girl stared at the strange man. As far as she knew, he was only aiming a cheap paper fan at her. As the girl stood, Genrou was mystified because of the odd garments that clothed her body. Meanwhile, the girl was astonished at how stunning and sexy the man before her looked.  
  
Lowering his iron harisen, he absorbed the girl's attire. She wore a white blouse and bow tie coupled with a brown skirt and jacket combo. Genrou took note of how the girl looked, and had the feeling that she had been thrown into the room from another world. He didn't know how accurate he actually was.  
  
Genrou immediately took a liking to the auburn haired girl. Her vibrant emerald eyes bore into his. He especially loved the way her hair was twirled into two buns on either side of her head. It gave her a childish flare which complimented her somewhat mature body. Not to mention how it reminded him of dumplings, which amused him.  
  
The girl he was eyeing slowly approached him. He felt a symbol on his right forearm begin to get hot, causing his body to tense up. A strong red glow shimmered through the two layers of his clothing, leaving the girl amazed. The symbol was on his forearm as long as Genrou could remember but it had never lit up like that before! The girl with the dumplings on either side of her head reached out to go touch his glowing arm.  
  
At first it seemed as if Genrou was going to let the girl touch him. He really wouldn't have minded, but a nagging question at the back of his mind caused him to retract his arm. "Who the hell are ya and how th' hell did you get in here?!"  
  
The girl stared up at Genrou, his handsome voice echoing in her ears. She took in the site of his molten hair licking the sides of his face almost as if each lock of hair was a flame. There was a considerable height difference between her and the man standing only a few inches away. His bright amber eyes stared at Miaka and for a moment, she thought she saw fire dance within their depths. As her eyes traveled from his tanned face down, she noticed dangling turquoise and ruby earrings that matched a pair of necklaces that hung around his neck. Her eyes fell upon a white shirt and khaki pants that were safely tucked into sturdy black boots. The long, illustrious trench coat had also caught Miaka's eye. Its dark black exterior was complemented well by the turquoise lining and trim around his shoulders and collar. Outside the jacket a thick strong leather belt was wrapped around his waist while a brass sash completed his look.  
  
Genrou grit his teeth as he waited for her answer. He watched as she surveyed him from behind thick eyelashes. "My name's Miaka." She decided to leave out her answer to his last question since she herself didn't know how she ended up there.  
  
"Who am I?! I'm Genrou, leader of the Bandits of Mount Reikaku!" His voice shook with pride as he gazed down at the girl. He was about to repeat the last part of his question when all of a sudden loud knocking came from the buildings only door. A loud voice soon followed the knocking.  
  
"Knock knock. Who's there? It's Kouji, a friend of Genrou. Blah blah, Genrou who?"  
  
As the door slowly creaked open, a bright red light yet again surrounded Miaka as the earth began to quake.  
  
"It's happening again!" Miaka cried out, wondering where her friend was since she obviously wasn't there with her. Genrou's attention was pulled from the new comer by Miaka's yell. He stared at the girl as she disappeared right before his eyes.  
  
The blue haired man with a clean-cut scar on his cheek watched as the red light disappeared, leaving Genrou and him the only one's in the room. They both looked at each other with wide eyes.  
  
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With a grimace, Miaka thought about how much her behind ached. She had spent the past three days on horse back with a man and a woman whom she didn't know until about a week ago. Upon leaving the book world after meeting Genrou, Miaka unexpectedly got into an argument with her mother over how she wished to attend Yotsubadai instead of Jonan like her mother wanted. Miaka felt as if her mother only cared about her own reputation, rather than her own daughters wishes. After running from the apartment in hysterics, Miaka had surprisingly found herself at the library. All of a sudden her thoughts had filled with images of Genrou and she sprinted up to the restricted section of the library and opened the book.  
  
Although, instead of falling into Genrou's arms like she had hoped, she appeared in the middle of a town street that was filled with merchants and their goods. On top of the fact that she had just materialized out of no where, the book decided to place here in front of a royal parade. Just her luck. Now that she looked back on it though, she felt the need to giggle under her breath. Whoever was in control over the powers of the book definitely had a sense of humor.  
  
Being thrown in front of the royal parade was actually a great turn of events for Miaka. She had ended up meeting the gorgeous, narcissistic emperor of the land of Konan, a city of ancient China. Through some crazy mishaps that involved Miaka being thrown in the dungeon, as well as mistaking the beautiful emperor for a woman, she eventually learned of the legend of Suzaku.  
  
The emperor had asked her to take the position of Priestess of Suzaku and she promptly took it. After all, who could say no to someone with that kind of beauty?  
  
With the task of finding all of the seven Celestial Warriors of Suzaku, Miaka was doing pretty good so far. The emperor, Hotohori, who just happened to be the man currently ridding with her the past three days, turned out to be one of the warriors, the "wings" symbol appearing on the side of his neck.  
  
The woman she had been riding with was also a Celestial Warrior. Her name was Nuriko and the "willow" symbol appeared right above her heart. It was apparent that Nuriko was head over heals in love with the emperor. Nuriko also had something against Miaka which confused her to know end. As far as she knew she hadn't done anything to offend her, yet she had been treated like a slave ever since they had met. Miaka do this, Miaka do that. She was getting sick and tired of all Nuriko's bossing around but she had to deal with it since she was one of the Suzaku Seven. After all, they needed to get along in order for there to be peace on this long journey!  
  
It was late at night and the three were taking a rest out in the wilderness. Their two horses were tied to a tree to keep them from running off deep into the woods. Somewhere nearby, Nuriko was busy stalking Hotohori as Miaka gazed up towards the sky.  
  
The peacefulness of the night was very comforting to Miaka's thoughts. All day Miaka thought about how hard this quest was turning out to be. She had only found two of the Suzaku warriors so far and she hadn't even found Genrou yet. Plus, Hotohori wasn't able to stay out of the palace for much longer so they needed to hurry up and find the next warrior so he could get back to tending to Konan.  
  
A cold wind danced through the trees and pulled at Miaka's uniform as she leaned against a tree. She closed her eyes and let the moonlight kiss her face as she continued to think about the handsome bandit. How long had it been since she had last seen him? Surely only a few days. Was he thinking about her? Did he even remember her?! She couldn't wait for her questions to be answered.  
  
Miaka heard a rustling in a nearby bush which brought her attention away from her musings of the sensual bandit leader. Right as Nuriko popped out, Miaka let out a squeal.  
  
"What are you doing?!" Miaka whispered hoarsely as she gasped for breath.  
  
A sly grin slipped onto Nuriko's lips. "Looking for you! Hotohori and I found a nice place to eat."  
  
The way Nuriko had stressed Hotohori's name annoyed Miaka to no end. It wasn't like she even had the hots for him! She was on a search for her one and only love, Genrou. And so far that search had turned up nothing. She hadn't even heard about any bandits so she wasn't even close.  
  
Miaka trudged after Nuriko into the restaurant as they both waited for Hotohori to finish tying up their horses. As the two of them sat across from each other, Miaka didn't notice the blue haired man off in the corner who eyed her for merely a second before averting his attention back to his drink. Only Nuriko surveyed the restaurant and took note of the suspicious grins on the peculiar men's faces.  
  
With her mind completely engulfed with thoughts of Genrou, Miaka almost didn't hear the man beside her ask her what she'd like to eat. Nothing but food could snap her out of her strongest musings.  
  
Much to Miaka's disliking, Nuriko started to talk about Hotohori after they had ordered. He still hadn't come back from tying up the horses so a conversation about him was free game. Like Miaka thought, Nuriko had recommended that Miaka give up on Hotohori because he was hers and hers alone. Miaka wouldn't doubt that Hotohori was absolutely gorgeous and a prize for any woman, but she had set her eyes one someone else.  
  
Soon after their discussion the food arrived, but it disappeared just as quickly as it had come. Miaka had cleared her plates as well as Nuriko's in seconds flat and she looked like she was ready for more.  
  
The next few events happened in a blur. As luck would have it, a fight broke out between Nuriko and the bandits who were actually in control of the restaurant. Hotohori had shown up just in time to save Miaka from certain death right before she was whisked away by the blue haired bandit that had glanced at her before from the corner of the room.  
  
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Glancing up at the man who had grabbed her, Miaka wondered where his was taking her. She began to look down at her feet, but all of a sudden an idea struck her and she had to do a double take. She had only gotten a quick glance at the second man she had encountered when she first was thrown into the book, but she was sure that the man holding her now was him! 'He called himself Kouji right?' Miaka thought as she took in his appearance.  
  
His blue hair fell around his face almost like Genrou's and his sea foam green shirt hung from his shoulders and ended about mid thigh. A sand colored headband wrapped around his forehead, hidden underneath his hair and almost invisible as it blended in with his tanned skin. He didn't seem to remember her, but maybe that's because he didn't get a good look at her...  
  
Kouji caught Miaka staring at him out of the corner of his eye. Grunting, he looked down at her and a vision of red engulfing a petite woman three months ago flashed into his head. For a second Miaka could have sworn that she caught a look of surprise deep in his eyes.  
  
Within the three months that had passed in the book since Miaka had first entered it, Kouji had heard Genrou talk a lot about this girl Miaka. He heard time and time again how bewitching she seemed. How she captivated him with her dumpling hair and emerald eyes.  
  
Sometimes hearing about it made Kouji's head spin with nausea. Yes, he was good friends with Genrou. It was safe to say that he was the best friend he'd ever had. Hearing him talk about this mysterious woman irked him out a bit and he didn't like the feeling. Especially since his friend was notorious for having a strong dislike for women. When he talked about her he wasn't all mushy, it's just Kouji found it very strange for Genrou to talk so highly about a woman for even a minute.  
  
Why would a man like Genrou have a strong dislike for women? Well Kouji thought that it's because he was brought up in a house full with women. Being smothered by your mother's enormous breasts isn't exactly something to brag about. Growing up surrounded by women going through PMS could do a number on a young boy, as well. With the living arrangement he had it comes as no surprise that he had learned of many of the mind games women tend to play with men. Well, some women.  
  
But with one quick glance Kouji could tell why Genrou had taken to this girl with only about a minute with her. She radiated confidence and love. Just by looking into her eyes Kouji could see how big her heart was and how much love she had to share.  
  
Looking in front of them, Kouji realized that he had reached the leader's quarters. Genrou was just behind the door. He wondered how this girl would react to seeing him again and how Genrou would act with being surprised with her.  
  
Clearing his throat, Kouji began his entrance. "Knock knock. Who's there? It's Kouji bringin' the woman as per your command." Miaka stared up at him, green eyes sparkling with amusement. '_Yep this is definitely the man who interrupted my encounter with Genrou. But wait. Whose command?!_' she thought as she started to get frantic.  
  
"It's-Kouji-bringing-the-woman-as-per-your-command--who?" And with that the door swung open. Miaka anxiously peered into the room to see who she had been taken to. As her emerald eyes widened with surprise her breath caught in her throat. The man inside the room looked just as surprised. His wide amber eyes stared out from behind thick locks of molten, wind-blown hair as it licked the sides of his face. It danced like fire around his face as a faint breeze blew in through the open window beside him.  
  
Kouji couldn't help but grin wickedly as he watched the two stare at each other in utter shock.  
  
_**To Be Continued...**_  
  
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Yes this was utterly short! It was soooooo much longer before but I took a huge chunk out because I absolutely hated it. I was thinking about continuing at the end but I really felt the need to leave it where it was. So, this is going to have to stay as short as it is. I promise that the next few chapters will be longer.

3 Tell me if there is anything seriously wrong with this fic.


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